1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to improvements in systems to input text to computer applications and the like and particularly to systems which require less input data than that contained in the words themselves.
The invention systems include both keyboard and stroke input systems. The keyboard systems, here-in-after referred to as computer assisting typing, or CAT, systems use both key down and key up signal inputs. The stroke systems use signals from minimum movements of a mouse, pen, or similar device for input.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The following includes art cited by the Patent Office in actions on the parent applications and art previously discussed in the parents. It serves as background although much is not directly pertinent to the present case.
CHORD TYPING SYSTEMS:
Stenograph systems registered combinations of key actuations on a paper tape and advanced the tape when all keys had been released. Typewriter systems used shift keys to change the characters outputted by other keys operated at the same time. The subsequent art is replete with systems using chords, or key combinations, of various types to improve the typing of text in one way or another. Some examples of different types of chording systems for text typing follow:
MECHANICAL TYPEWRITER WORD TYPING:
Bullock, U.S. Pat. No. 1,275,657, added keys to a typewriter to type words.
Seiber, U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,686, added a special shift key so other keys typed words when operated with it.
Schaefer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,804, typed words with keys depressed beyond their normal range.
STENOGRAPHIC KEYBOARD WORD/TEXT TYPING:
Ralston, U.S. Pat. No. 1,590,998, suggests, but does not implement, the selection of a set of words with one key followed by the selection of a word from the set with another key. The word sets include sets of words with a particular suffix or inflected form.
Baisch, U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,820, attempts a system for producing text from stenographic type inputs with an enlarged keyboard that includes keys added for words, prefixes and suffixes.
Ayres, U.S. Pat. No. 3,225,883, Wright, U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,927, Binenbaum, U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,538, Budworth et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,915, and Lefler, U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,764, are also examples of systems that produce text from stenographic inputs.
Toth, U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,065, assigns ten words to digit keys, other words to two letter key codes starting with `x`, `y`, or `z`, and other words to codes with the first two letters of the words and end with the last letters.
ONE HAND CHORD TYPING:
Bequaert et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,777, produces both words and characters from chords determined by detection of First Released Keys or All Released Keys.
Eilam et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,446, Enfield, U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,506, Jensen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,700, are other examples of one handed typing systems.
TIMING OF KEY OPERATIONS FOR CHORDS:
Rollhaus et. al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,638,306 & 4,674,280, and Goldwasser, U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,786, use the time intervals between operations of key combinations to distinguish chords.
ABBREVIATED TYPING OF WORDS:
Arellano et. al. "Word Generation System for Typists", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol 17, No. 8, January 1975, describes a system which generates the final portions of words after the typing of strings of first letters.
Todd, "Abbreviated Typing for Word Processing", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 9, February 1979, generates words in response to the typing of abbreviations of the words.
Venema, U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,238, Levin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,528, Howell et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,049, and Goldwasser, U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,786, also use abbreviations to type words.
DISPLAYS OF KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS:
Knowlton, U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,722, provides an optical means to impose images from a CRT screen to a keyboard.
Buric et. al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,097, in a system using multiple sets of functions for keys, responds to key operations with a display of the resulting new set of key functions on a keyboard map.
Eibner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,627, displays functions responsive to function key operations.
Pick, U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,282, displays a keyboard map of key assignments for different languages.
Goldwasser, U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,786, displays words associated with keys on a keyboard map. The set of words displayed changes in response to key operations to show the words available from the next stroke.
WORD & SUFFIX TYPING:
Chang, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 22, No. 6, November 1979 teaches the typing of words from standard keys and a split space bar.
Hayashi et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,992, type words from keys preceded by the space bar and suffixes from keys preceded by letters, all if followed by a special key.
Hanft et. al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,374,625 & 4,464,070, type suffixes from keys with the suffixes depending upon the preceding string of characters typed.
Yoshida, U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,817, uses inflection rule patterns and control to minimize the memory required in a lanaguage translator.
Goldwasser, U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,786, uses the `/` key in combination with other keys to type suffixes appended with spelling changes when necessary.
IDEOGRAPHIC TYPING:
Tzu-Hung Li, U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,734, divides Chinese characters into a prefix and a suffix related to one of 10 primary character elements. The 10 prefixes and the 10 suffixes are further divided into 100 divisions. A 100 key keyboard then provides for typing prefix and suffix combinations in two strokes to specify the Chinese characters.
Greanias, et. al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,235, provides for the entry of Chinese/Kanji characters in response to a pen moving as to write them on an electronic tablet. Stroke analysis determines one of 42 categories and crossing of previous strokes and uses the data to identify 72 symbol elements, or "alphabetic" components. The sequence of "alphabet" components determines the words written.
Lee, U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,703, defines a set of basic stroke patterns which form Chinese characters and uses them for analysis.
Wang Young-Min, U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,926, arranges selected roots on 25 keys of a standard keyboard to obtain Chinese characters.
Andrew Chui, U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,743, encodes Chinese characters by basic stroke elements and sequences and then orders characters having the same codes by the degree of complexity.
OTHER SYSTEMS:
The article, "Multilingual Word Processing", Joseph. D. Becker, in the Scientific American of July 1984, discusses a phonetic conversion system to type Japanese. The user types words in a phonetic alphabet to computer apparatus which searches a dictionary to find the words having the input sound strings. If the sound strings match more than one word, the user additionally selects the word wanted.
Most of the foregoing systems combine chord typing with regular typing. Goldwasser and Rollhaus et. al., for example, use the time intervals between key operations to distinguish chords and regular typing. Arellano et. al. Todd, Chang, Hayashi et. al., Venema, and Goldwasser, use dedicated strings or special keys to mark inputs for words.
REMAINING PROBLEMS:
Important, if not vital, for the commercial success of new text input systems is fitting into the present computer environment along with a wide variety of other programs.
New typing systems must work with conventional typing and have appeal for present typists. They must have the potential for major increases in typing speed while being learnable on-the-job with minimual losses in productivity.